The Latin American Jewish Studies Association (LAJSA) is an academic group based in the United States that studies Judaism in Latin American. Serving as an international network, they connect scholars from different countries and continents, and also the Jewish community in general. In this interview Adriana M. Brodsky and Darrel B. Lockhart, presidents of LAJSA, talk about its history and its influence in the academic scenario of Jewish studies. Judith Laikin Elkin, in her paper on the founding of LAJSA, says “Latin American Jewish studies were at the time a more or less private avocation, unrecognized by universities or publishers”. Why did this happen?

Latin American Jewish studies were certainly on the margins of Jewish studies and Latin American studies. The experience of Jews in Latin America was not considered as important as those of Jews in Europe, the USA, and Israel, just as the experiences of Jews in Latin America was not deemed, because of the numbers and cultural...